How to celebrate Orwell's birthday today

George Orwell was born on this day in 1903. It was the start of the Edwardian age but Victorian values, especially imperialism, still held full sway. This was the first “ism” that Orwell challenged even though, as Eric Blair, he had the privilege of an upper middle class life and an Eton education. His novel “Burmese Days” and short story “Shooting an elephant” shows his disgust with the hypocrisy of English imperialism. He wrote in Notes on Nationalism “The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing of them”. He was suspicious of American right wing writers such as James Burnham who wrote approvingly that a Nazi victory in WWII was preferable to communism In his essay “Second Thoughts on James Burnham” he used the phrase to describe such books as a sop to “American wish thinking”. Remember that the Pentagon has 20,000 public relations people so it's wise to take government pronouncements with a grain of salt. In fact, you should probably review your assumptions often Beware the press releases that state that failure is not an option.They just promise more war.